Portable apparatus for elevating and screening coal and other unscreened material



v v P. .I. ALWART. PORTABLE APPARATUS FOR ELEVATlNG AND SCREENING COAL AND OTHER UNSCREENED MATERIAL. APPLICATION FILED JULY 25. 1921.

1,432,738, Patented Oct. 24, 1922. v

2 SHEETS- SHEET n P inventor? (o I); V .7 Q vPaa -/.//(66'( 7 i 0 0z M v P. J. ALWART. PORTABLE APPARATUS FOR ELEVATING AND SCREENING COAL AND OTHER UNSCREENED MATERIAL. APPLICATION FILED JULY 25,192].

1,432,738, Patented 001;. 24, 19 22.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented Get. 24, 1922.

?AULJ;-AIJWART, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

unsonnnnnn MAT L,

Applieation filed July 25, 1921. Serial No. 487,397.

ALWART, a a resident description. i This invention relatesto portable apparatus for elevating andscree'ning coal and other unscreened material, and its prin-- cipal object is to provide an elevating and screening apparatuswhich may bejreadily moved about from one position to another and arranged to. elevate unscreened materlal from one level to another, remove the fine material and deliver: the' screened ma terial' into wagons, car, bags or other receptacles MAS, iswell known, there 5 is considerable dust and fine arnrtmammnu with coal, both anthracite and bituminous coal,

and frequently large. quantities of coal are stored in coal yards 'Whichmustbe screened before it can be marketedand sold at any reasonable price, and in accordance :with the common and well known methods of screening coal taken froma coal pile, a great deal of labor and time is consumed in pre paring it for the market, thereby greatly increasi'ngrlthe cost of the screened coal. One of the objects of the present. invention is to reduce the time and labor necessary for cleaning coaland consequently reduce the cost of preparing the coal for the market. Another] object is to simplify the operation and reduce the time and. labor ordinarily consumed in cleaning the coal, delivering itin cleaned conditioninto wagons, cars, bagsor other receptacles. With these and other objects and advan- ,tages inview, this invention consists in the seyeral novel features hereinafter fully set forth. 'The inve ntion is clearly illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in I which 7 1 1s a side elevationof an apparatus embodying a simple f OIIH OZfIt hB present inventlon; Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the screening mechanism thereof, looking in the 'di'reetion of theiarrow 2 in Eig. g1 Rig.

is .a detail, vertical, longitudinal section, partly broken away, through the screen portion of the apparatus and Fig. 4; is a detail plan of a fragment of the elevator mechanism. i

' Referring to said drawings, the reference character 5 designates an elevator of common and-well known construction, employing an'endless conveyor 6 having the usual flights 7 that travel in a trough' 8 and act to convey material from the bottom to the top of the elevator. Located over the endless conveyer, at the bottom of the elevator, is' a hopper shoveled or dumped as the case may be. An electric motor 10 is mounted in the elevator 5 and it. drives the endless conveyer 6 by suitable gearing 11 andichain drive meclia nism, the chain 12 of which istrained over asprocket wheel 13 mounted at' the upper end of the elevator, on a shaft la, which carries sprocket wheels over which the end 9 into which the material less conveyor 6' isgtrained. The elevator .3

is supported in an inclined position by a frame 15 which is mounted on supporting wheels 16, whcrebyit may be readily moved about from place to place, The lower end of; the elevatorrests uponlth e grouinil and its upper end isfllocated above the screening mechanism of the apparatus in position to discharge the elevated material into thehopper of the screening mechanism.

The screen mechanism comprises a tower lf? 'preferablymade of upright frame members l8 and horizontal connecting bars 19, riveted or otherwise rigidly secured together to provide a rigid skeleton like tower structure. Rollers or caster wheels 20'secured to the bottom of the tower, provide means whereby it may be readily moved from plajceto place. At the upper end of the tower is a hopper 21 preferably having two inclined hopper bottoms 22 upon which the material is discharged from the elevator 5. At and below the lower end of thehopper bottoms 22, is, an inclined screen 23 of suitable mesh, to permit of theescape of the finer material, and said screen is provided on its low er side with cam shoes 24 that rest on cam blocks 25 mounted on a camshaft 26 which is journaled in bearings 27 mounted onthe frame members 28 of the tower. The

upper en'dof the inclined screen 23 may be low the lower end of the screen to relieve the structure from some of the shock. Pivotally supported 011 frame members 29 are retarding gates 30, the lower ends of which rest on the screen and retard the flow of material along the same. Said gatesalso actto arrest the flow of material when the screen is at rest. The screen may be provided with a tensioning deviceand the bumping bar may heconstructedin accordance with the corresponding parts shown and described in my application for patent on screening apparatus filed February 18,1921, Serial No. 4%,980, to which reference is made for a fuller description. On oneend of the shaft 26 is a sprocket wheel 31 which is connected to a sprocket wheel 32 on the shaft 14: of the elevator 5 by the sprocket chain 33. lVhenever the electric motor of the elevator is set in motion and the shaft 14 of the endless conveyer is thereby caused to move,the cam shaft 26 is consequently rotated through the instrumentality ot' the sprocket wheels 32, 31, and sprocket chain 33,and any coal or other material discharged into i the hopper 21 is acted upon the screen 23, but as soonas the motor is stopped, the con veyer ceases to run and the cam blocks cease to agitate the a screen, whereupon thevflow of the coal down the screen is immediately arrested by the gates 30. y

The motor 10 is controlled from the'tower by a control switch 34:, vpreferably of the re mote control'type, which is supported bythe tower and is connected to'the motor by conductor-cords 35. Other conductor cords 36 run from said switch to the main line, A switch actuating hand lever 37, fulcrumed upon the tower, is connected to the switch 341v by a link 38, and a spring 39 connects said hand lever 37 with the tower and acts to raise it and thereby raise the link 38 and open the switchmechanism of the switch 34 whenever the lever is released. The switch isclosed by depressing the hand le- ,ver 37. p yBelow the screen 23 is a chute 40 having an inclined bottomAl which receives thefiner material separated from the coal or other material by the screen, andsaid chute-4O deliversgsaid finer material to one side of the tower. An inclined coal chute 42 projects from the lowerend of the inclined screen 23 and delivers the. screened coal at a place considerablyabove the level of the place from which'the unscreened coal was taken.

Thelowerr end of said coal chute 4:2 is contracted somewhat in order that a coal bag may, be placed thereunder to receive the screened coal and a counterweighted swingtime usually required to In the operation of the apparatus, the

elevator is moved to a position close to a coal pile or other material which is to be screened, and the screening mechanism is moved under the upper end of the elevator in position to receive coal or other material discharged from its upper end and. the sprocket wheels 31, 32, are then connected by the sprocket chain 33. To deliver clean, screened coal into a wagon or into bags contained in the wagon, the latter is driven underneath the coal chuteeQ, coal is shov eled into the hopper 9, and the lever 37 depressed, thereby setting .in motion the motor. If coal is to be bagged, a bag is placed under chute 42 and the hand lever 3'7 then depressed to close the switch andheldin depressed condition until the bag is practically filled, whereupon the lever is raised to openv the switch and break the circuit to themotorf As soon as the endless conveyor stops the screen ceases to discharge any more coal. p

With the, use of ascreen agitated by the camsvas described, a large capacity is obtained for given'size andconsequentlythe coal can be run through the apparatus and delivered in clean, screened condition in much less time. than it the coal were screened in accordance with the common and well known methods and placed in the wagon or other receptacle. I

By providing the hand leverin position accessible. to the attendant on the wagon, he

the discharge end of the coal 7 can control theoperation of the elevator and screen, and can fill bags in the wagon, with clean, screened coal, taken from a pile of unscreened coal. This saves all of the first bring the coal to the coalbins and run it through theusual 7 screens. c

It is quite possible to use the screening apparatus separate'from the elevator, in cases where itisdesired to screen coal, or'fother material taken from a,railway car orthe like, in which case the camshaft is connected to a motor and the coal is shoveled into thehopper 21 from the car. In this way the ,unscreened coal may be delivered in cleanconditionfdircctly from the carinto awagon or bags, thereby saving considerable time in preparing the'coal forthe market.

While the apparatus has been described in connection, with the screening of coal, it is quite, obvious that it. may be used for screening other material such as stone, sand, etc.

i -More or lessvariation of the exact details of. construction possible without departing from the spirit of this invention;

I desire, therefore, not to limit myself to the exact form of the construction shown and described, but intend, in the following claims, to point out all of the invention disclosed herein.

I claim as new Letters Patent:

1. A portable elevating, screening and. loading apparatus comprising, in combina tion, a portable elevator mounted on wheels and having an electric motor operated conveyer, a portable tower, an inclined shaking screen mounted in said tower, a hopper carried by said tower between the upper ends oi said conveyermechanism and screen, screen agitating means driven from the motor of said elevator, and an electric control switch for said motor mounted on said tower and having a switch actuating handle accessible adjacent the discharge end of the screen, whereby an attendant adjacent said screen may control the simultaneous operation of the conveyer and screen, said elevator and tower being separately movable, whereby the distance between the receiving end of the eleand desire to secure by vator and the discharge end of the screen may be varied.

2. A portable elevating, screening and loading apparatus comprising, in combination, a portable elevator mounted on wheels and having electric motor operated conveyer mechanism, a portable tower, an inclined shaking screen mounted in said tower, a hopper carried by said tower between the upper ends of said conveyor mechanism and screen, material retarding and arresting means above said screen, screen agitating means driven from a member of said conveyer mechanism and an electric control switch for the motor of said conveyer mechanism, having a switch actuating handle located adjacent said screen, whereby an attendant adjacent the discharge end of said screen may control the simultaneous operation of said conveyer and screen, said elevator and tower being separately movable, whereby the distance between the receiving end of the elevator and the discharge end of the screen may be varied.

PAUL J. ALl/VART 

